Road milling machines with which one, several, or all layers of a road can be removed by milling, are used nowadays to remove traffic surfaces, for example roads, road segments, or parking lots. The milling output achievable with a respective road milling machine, for example the milling area achievable per unit time or the milling volume achievable per unit time, depends greatly on the material properties of the traffic surface to be processed. The wear on the milling tools is also influenced directly by the material properties of the road or road segment. These relationships make it difficult to plan machine deployment for pending road milling tasks. The result can be that more resources than necessary, in terms of time, machinery, or materials, are provided for a road milling task, leading to elevated costs. Insufficient resources can likewise be allocated, which can result in delays. This becomes negatively evident in particular in a context of successively scheduled milling tasks, and can result in large consequential losses, for example if subsequent processing steps cannot be executed or are executed late.
The document DE 10 2013 112 972 A1 discloses a method for wear prognosis for an earth working machine, in particular a road milling machine. Here the current wear state of a bit or a bit holder is captured, and a residual wear capacity is ascertained from the current wear state. From that capacity, the remaining working output until the tools have reached their wear limit, for example in the form of a mass still millable, or a milling volume, or a remaining work time, can be ascertained. The material properties of the substrate to be processed can also be considered in determining the remaining working output. Those properties can be deduced, for example, by taking samples or on the basis of machine parameters of the earth working machine which are established in the context of milling.
US 2015/0197253 A1 discloses a system that, in the context of processing of a ground surface, for example a road, with an earth working machine, ascertains the quality of a working step in positionally resolved fashion and displays it graphically. The quality of a processed road segment can be ascertained and evaluated using suitable sensors on the road construction machine and by comparison with specified values. The positionally resolved graphic depiction allows an operator of the road construction machine to rework individual road segments in targeted fashion. Ground irregularities caused by “jumps” of the earth working machine can represent, for example, a quality feature.